‘I can’t believe you said that!’: Social media, democracy and the public good

Abstract

Following Elon Musk's acquisition of the Twitter in 2022, the platform has been characterized by an uptick in the trolling and disinformation that are critical tools for illiberal and undemocratic political movements. In The Politics of Small Things, Jeffrey Goldfarb emphasises the importance, not simply of the public sphere, but of the potential and transformative power of the conversations that occur there. Clearly, free speech, as it occurs on social media, may or may not promote democracy. This leads us to what Goldfarb did not predict: that the same technology that helped grassroots movements overthrow authoritarianism would put the politics of small things to the purpose of undemocratic politics. Goldfarb was correct that public conversation leads to action and power. What we all missed, however, was that social media could turn a central tool of democracy, free and fair elections, to bringing about an undemocratic world.